Just the one pen of 2009-drop ewe lambs topped the $200 a head mark at Naracoorte’s premier crossbred ewe lamb sale in South Australia’s south east Thursday.
Sold by Shultz Livestock of Coonalpyn, the yard of 107 March April-drop ewes crossed the border into Victoria, headed the Stewart family’s “Wimmera Downs” at Stawell.
In a shift to buying ewe lambs rather than one-and-a-half-year-olds, Craig Stewart and his agent Damian Harrington of Rodwells then picked up the seconds of Shulz Livestock draft, a yard of 97 at $188.
The second highest price on the day, in a sale of about 31,000, went to Mark Pridham’s Corlinga Partners of The Gap near Western Flat.
They were a yard of 95 April/May-drop ewe lambs sold at $196 to Landmark Naracoorte, while the seconds of these $168.
Further two sales on the day then made $190 a head or better.
These included a yarded of 136 sold by McMahon Brothers of Lamaroo while BG Mumford and Sons sold their first draft pen of 167 from a draft of 600, at $190.
There in after the remainder of the ewe lambs suitable for an early autumn joining next year made from $140- $180, as a steady demand settled in a placed a floor across the market as big numbers were cleared in a $150-$175 price bracket.
A major supplier to the market and the winner of this year’s blue ribbon best presented award, Ian Farley “Marmon Hills” Jabuk SA sold 1400 head to a best of $178 for a consignment average of $163.50.
A 33-year breeder of crossbreds Naracoorte’s Peter Lock, trading as FB Lock and Sons, sold 2500 April/May-drop ewe lambs to a top of $172 for a draft average of $160.50.
Tom Dennis, of Elders, Naracoorte, said the demand displayed “real depth” in a very solid market that went without the extremes at either ends of the price scale.
He said that buyers and sellers would both be happy as the market had traded “where it was expected”.
Light restocker turning-out ewe lambs he said were perhaps the exception with most purchased in a price range of $110-$135 a head but with very few lots sold for less than $100.
Earlier in the day, at Edenhope in Victoria’s west Wimmera, a yarding of crossbred wether lambs, shorn, made from $70 to a best of $92.
A huge portion of this 4000 head yarding was also sold to restockers in a price range $72 to $80 with very few sales record below $70.
